Became the Transcendent Monarch of the Corner of the Room - Chapter 99

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 99

9999…. 9998….

“Why are the numbers decreasing?”

“This… is correct, right?”

The Awakening Management Bureau was in complete emergency mode.

Ten thousand Hunters had suddenly vanished as if they had evaporated.

There was no follow-up news about them at all.

The most concerning thing was.

The number of Hunters, which had been filled to exactly ten thousand, was gradually decreasing.

“Maybe they just returned?”

Team Leader Lee Hyung-jun shook his head at Ji Min-gi’s question.

Since the numbers went up when people entered.

Naturally, they should come out too.

But as time passed, their expectations increasingly went in the wrong direction.

“Team Leader. The people who went to the Past Labyrinth aren’t returning.”

“Still?”

“It’s already been six hours since the ten thousand were filled, but no one has said they’ve returned.”

“That’s natural. They wouldn’t report their return to us right away.”

“So we sent official documents to the top 200 guilds, and all the guilds with participants replied that there were no returnees.”

“All of them? Really?”

“Yes.”

Although it wasn’t the form of a typical labyrinth.

Even compared to similar labyrinth outskirts, it was equally unsettling.

Moreover, the biggest problem was that they couldn’t even tell if those ten thousand people were alive or dead.

“This… they’re not trapped inside, are they?”

“Come on, surely not. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have asked the Hunters for their consent in the first place.”

A full 12 hours passed like that.

However, even by then, not a single Hunter who had entered and exited the Past Labyrinth had appeared.

“Team Leader! Team Leader!”

Team Leader Lee was processing documents in front of the monitor.

At Ji Min-gi’s call from the other side.

He unconsciously frowned.

“What is it, good news or bad news?”

Was it some kind of intuition?

Whenever Ji Min-gi’s eyebrows pointed like 8:20, there was always bad news.

“Well… inquiries are coming from the guilds.”

“What are you talking about? What kind of inquiries?”

“They… want to confirm the life and death status of guild members who participated in the Past Labyrinth…”

Thud.

The moment he heard those words.

Lee Hyung-jun sighed and hit his forehead.

As expected.

They had become missing persons.

“Which guilds contacted us?”

“It’s not just one or two places. Starting from Manwol, all the way to the 200th ranked guilds are included. Of course, the number of people varies…”

“Are rankers included too?”

“It’s literally random. There are F-rank Hunters and quite a few rankers included as well.”

“This is driving me crazy…”

The moment he heard those words, his mind became incredibly complicated.

If it were just novice Hunters who went and faced difficulties, that would be one thing.

But having rankers mixed in meant-

‘Even rankers couldn’t handle the difficulty level.’

The government has campaigned several times telling them to be careful when exploring unknown places, but Hunters never listen.

“Would it be impossible to enter the Past Labyrinth from our side now?”

“That’s right. There doesn’t seem to be any way to enter like a gate or dimensional portal.”

Meanwhile, the numbers continued to decrease little by little.

Before they knew it, it had dropped to 9500.

“This won’t do. I think we need to report this upward.”

“Upward… you mean the Director?”

“No.”

“Then… we need to make it reach the Minister’s ears. We need to summon the rankers.”

“Ah, understood.”

“I’ll handle reporting upward. Can you contact the Dimensional Management Office and ask if we can borrow an Observer? There’s nothing better for confirming life and death immediately.”

“An Observer! …Understood, Team Leader.”

Since there was still no news, it might be an overreaction.

But.

But Lee Hyung-jun thought.

Ominous premonitions always become reality.

He hoped all of this would turn out to be an overreaction or exaggeration.

Thinking that, he picked up his phone.

***

***

The moment he heard those words.

Choi Hyun-min recalled when he first used the scroll.

A special Quest given to the first person to discover the Past Labyrinth.

Perhaps that was referring to this.

[Quest: Destroy Rendin Castle.]

[Reward: Ability Awakening (EX Grade)]

The description was short and unfriendly.

But the reward written below caught Choi Hyun-min’s attention.

‘I absolutely have to clear this. This must be what the guaranteed EX grade reward was referring to.’

But Rendin Castle?

Was there a castle inside here?

-Master! I think it’s referring to that!

At Hans’s words, Choi Hyun-min reflexively turned his head.

To his right were gray clouds.

And beyond them, he could see a gray castle rising up.

‘So that’s Rendin Castle.’

Even from this distance, it was quite far away.

Moreover, its size was enormous, and he couldn’t even imagine being able to destroy it.

“It’s definitely worthy of an EX grade Quest. Having to destroy something like that.”

Rather than that, understanding this place should come first.

Choi Hyun-min stepped over the shattered orc corpse and approached someone who had fallen.

Mage Ian followed behind him.

“As expected, it was a Hunter.”

Getting closer, he could see clearly.

The fallen person was indeed a Hunter, as expected.

A man equipped with typical gear used by levels 20-25.

Whether he was defeated by the orc from earlier.

Was it from that orc from earlier?

His head to his left shoulder was completely covered in blood.

Huff. Huff. Huff.

‘Was he still alive?’

Rough breathing filled his ears.

“Ian?”

-It’s no use.

He called out to Ian with a glimmer of hope.

But Ian shook his head firmly as if he knew what he was going to say.

Being a mage, he had tried to heal that person, but it seemed impossible.

Thud.

As if to prove Ian’s words were right.

The moment he shook his head, the breathing stopped.

[9499/10000]

‘The number decreased.’

The moment that person’s breathing stopped, the number dropped by 1.

That means…

‘People are dying in here even at this very moment.’

And 500 people in less than a day at that.

Choi Hyun-min clenched his fist in tension.

‘I can’t just stay here doing nothing.’

Meanwhile, light burst out from between the crudely built tents.

Grrrowl!

An orc that looked exactly like the previous one revealed itself.

And not just one, but three of them.

-I shall go, sir.

Dehof, who spotted them.

Before Choi Hyun-min could even give an order, he grabbed his axe and launched himself toward the tents.

Swoosh!

Despite having a build comparable to the orcs.

Dehof charged with overwhelming speed.

-Die, you filthy creatures!

He immediately swung his axe horizontally and severed the first orc’s neck.

Thunk!

The head was cut off without any resistance by the sharp adamantium axe.

Following up with a sweeping axe blade, the second and third orcs were also helplessly sliced apart.

Thud. Thunk.

As if that wasn’t enough, Dehof completely demolished the tents as well.

Crash!

The leather tents collapsed helplessly under the axe blade.

Only after completely destroying the scattered remains did he return this way.

-I have completely destroyed them, Master.

“Well done.”

-It seems those tents were serving the role of summoning monsters.

“Really?”

At Dehof’s words, Choi Hyun-min’s eyes widened.

Come to think of it, there were no monsters, but they suddenly appeared from there.

“Then we’ll need to destroy all similar buildings we see.”

-That would be the right approach. If they keep creating monsters, nothing would be more troublesome.

Let’s go back for now.

Destroying that castle would be impossible at this point.

It would be better to gradually gather information while looking for a way to conquer the castle.

With that thought, Choi Hyun-min.

He returned to his room with the Block Toys.

Flash!

After a brief blackout, Choi Hyun-min was completely back in his room.

Buzz. Buzzzz.

As soon as he returned, he picked up his phone at the vibrating sound that tickled his ears.

“…Awakening Management Agency?”

Why would the Awakening Management Agency suddenly call?

Ji Min-gi’s name was displayed prominently on the phone screen.

What was even stranger was-

“They already called this many times?”

Before this call came in, there were over thirty missed calls from the same name.

“It’s not voice phishing or anything, right?”

Did these people have a reason to call this persistently?

Tilting his head in confusion, Choi Hyun-min pressed the call button.

As soon as he answered, an exclamation burst out from the other end of the phone.

-Oh! He answered!

“Hello?”

-Mr. Choi Hyun-min! Is this really Mr. Choi Hyun-min?

“Yes, it’s me. Is this Section Chief Ji Min-gi?”

-That’s right! Ah, so you didn’t go in! Thank goodness!

…Didn’t go in?

What does that mean?

Ji Min-gi was suddenly spouting incomprehensible words.

This… is really him, right?

He briefly took the phone away from his ear to check the screen.

Then brought the phone back to his ear again.

“More importantly, what’s this about? You called me so many times.”

-Ah! There’s an urgent matter!

“An urgent matter?”

-By any chance, did Mr. Choi Hyun-min not receive an invitation message from the ‘Past Labyrinth’?

Past Labyrinth!

So it was about that after all.

He briefly pondered how to respond to his question.

‘…I should say I received an invitation too, right?’

Even though he didn’t create it directly.

But it would be strange to say he was completely unrelated.

Having finished thinking, Choi Hyun-min.

He spoke in a cautious tone.

“That’s right. What I received is probably similar to what you saw directly.”

-But you still didn’t go in! You must have had some insight after all?

What is he talking about?

What does he mean by not going in from earlier?

“No. I went in.”

-….

If what Choi Hyun-min saw wasn’t an illusion or hallucination.

He had definitely entered the Past Labyrinth and come out.

He had no intention of hiding that, so he simply told the truth.

But there was no response from the other end.

A long silence.

-Did you say you went in? Into the Past Labyrinth?

“Yes.”

-H-how?

What kind of question is this now?

If he already knows I received the proposal, there shouldn’t be any need to ask how I got in.

“It doesn’t seem like I used a different method from others, is there some problem?”

Unable to understand the intent behind the question, Choi Hyun-min asked back instead.

Then Ji Min-gi’s answer immediately popped out.

-Among the people who have entered the Past Labyrinth right now, there isn’t… a single person who has returned like you, Mr. Choi Hyun-min.

“What?!”

-It seems we need to meet in person… Would you be able to spare some time?

“That’s not difficult, but-“

-Thank you! We’ve also contacted Manwol’s Master besides you, Mr. Choi Hyun-min, so we’d be grateful if you could attend together!

Father too?

Calling Choi Hyun-min was one thing.

But if they’re contacting even father, who’s practically all of Manwol, could this be a more serious problem than expected?

Knock knock knock.

The call hadn’t ended yet, but knocking sounds came from outside the door.

“Young master! The head of the family has urgently summoned you!”

So urgent was it that Secretary Kim’s voice overlapped with the sound of knocking on the door.

And behind that, a familiar voice could be heard.

“I’m coming in now.”

The master of Manwol.

It was Choi Seung-hyun.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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